IPL 2024 Teams Preview: Strategies, captaincy updates, players' stats and more

What started as a mode to bring more fans into the stadium is now a global phenomenon and is considered one of the world's wealthiest leagues. By the time Lalit Modi introduced the concept of the Indian Premier League, fans across the globe had a fair idea of what T20 cricket is. Courtesy of the T20 World Cup in 2007, which India won. Some liked what they saw as it was fast, aggressive and, most importantly, visibly more appealing while many believed it would last for a couple of seasons before fans got bored.

The year 2024 marks the 17th edition of the IPL. It is as strong as it could have been as Disney + Star paid a whopping INR 48,390 crore to buy the media rights of IPL, while Viacom18 paid INR 20,500 to buy the digital rights. That’s the kind of demand IPL has at the moment. Even if we keep the numbers aside, each of the 10 franchises has produced incredible players who eventually went on to play for the national team.

In 2023 particularly, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel of Rajasthan Royals have proved themselves to be the key players for the national team and played some brilliant cricket. In return, both cricketers made their international debut. The same can be said about Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh, Punjab Kings’ Jitesh Sharma, or Mumbai Indians’ Tilak Varma. All 10 teams are putting their best foot forward to win the coveted trophy and keeping that goal in mind, they have working hard on their weaknesses throughout the year and identifying and nurturing talents, that can help them to increase their team strength.

This simple process that each team is carrying out, is helping the league improve its standards. It’s no more a race between Mumbai Indians or Chennai Super Kings but teams like Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Kings are up there as well, who are qualified for the playoffs in both years of their existence.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru are up and running, while teams like Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad are surprise packages - you never know what they can do. Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals haven’t been at their best in the last couple of years but in 2024, it’s anybody’s game.

Here’s a complete analysis of each IPL team regarding their strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and more:

10. Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Aiden Markram-led side arguably looked the strongest on paper in 2023 but finished at the bottom of the table. The team management was livid with the performance, which resulted in the sacking of the head coach Brian Lara. Moreover, Markram too lost his place despite winning two back-to-back SA20 titles. Was that a clever call? Well, the franchise considered a captaincy change and signed Pat Cummins for INR 20.50 crore, given his track record in the recent past and connection with head coach Daniel Vettori, SRH made the obvious choice.

Under the leadership of Cummins, Australia won the World Test Championship, managed to retain the Ashes in England, and won the ODI World Cup in 2023, which influenced SRH to choose Cummins as the captain of the team. On top of that, the 2016 champions added Travis Head, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat. Interestingly, they already had the likes of Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen and Glenn Phillips as options, who all are in incredible form in recent times.

When it comes to Indian talent, they have the likes of Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma with the bat, but neither of the cricketers managed to prove their consistency with the bat in the last season or even in domestic cricket this year. With the ball, all eyes will once again be on Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who will be gunning to make his return to the national team for the upcoming T20 World Cup. Either T Natarajan or Umran Malik is likely to partner with him as Cummins is likely to play as the third seamer.

Washington Sundar and Shahbaz will handle the spin department. They once again look like a champion side but that can act as a bane for SRH. There’s too much qualify in the side and the player who’s going to sit out, will not enjoy warming the bench. Picking four foreign players itself seems like a challenge and that’s a concern for SRH ahead of the first match against KKR on March 23 at the iconic Eden Gardens. However, if they find the right combination and most importantly momentum, SRH will be a difficult team to beat.

Also Read: SRH IPL History from 2013 to 2024